It is purchasing additional equity in the firm via an issue of new shares, taking BP’s stake from 43% to 50%.

The proceeds from the equity issue will be invested back into Lightsource BP and used for further solar power developments across the globe, supporting the company’s drive towards 10GW of developed assets by the end of 2023.

Since BP’s initial investment two years ago, Lightsource BP’s activities have expanded from five to 13 countries and major projects have been signed across Europe, the US and Australia with a development pipeline of more than 12GW.

Dev Sanyal, CEO of Alternative Energy at BP said: “BP is committed to helping meet the world’s rapidly growing demand for low carbon energy. Solar, which is predicted to increase by a factor of 10 by 2040, plays a key role in this energy transition.

“That is why we want to invest more in Lightsource BP and to deepen our partnership. We want to advance the solar energy business worldwide and we can bring scale, capability and resources to make that happen. We are proud to be advancing solar alongside such a dynamic partner.”